An inmate who took the life of his cellmate because he wanted a death sentence has been executed.
James Robertson, 63, died after receiving a three-drug injection at Florida State Prison on Tuesday, October 13. He was pronounced dead about 10 minutes after the lethal injection was administered.
Robertson declined to give a final statement when asked if he had any last words.
“Nah, I’m straight,” he responded.
Robertson’s execution comes after the botched execution of Christa Pike, who survived two doses of pentobarbital and was rushed to hospital. Pike has since been discharged and returned to prison.
“Florida has a sound lethal injection process and protocol,” Jordan Kirkland, a state Department of Corrections spokesperson, said at a news conference ahead of the execution. NigeriaNews Updates
While he could not speak about Tennessee’s lethal injection protocol, Kirkland said Florida would make sure its process was “humane and dignified.”
Florida injects death row inmates with a sedative, a paralytic, and a drug that stops the heart when they are put to death, according to the state Department of Corrections.
Robertson had pleaded guilty to first-degree murder for strangling his cellmate, Frank Hart, as he was sleeping in 2008. He waived all appeals and told investigators that he unalived the man so he would be given the death penalty and not have to live out the rest of his days behind bars.
Hart was killed just eight days before he was set to be released, according to his daughter, Rebecca Hart, who emphasized that her father was not only a piece of Robertson’s story.
“When someone you love is taken from you in such a violent way, the world keeps moving, even when a part of yours feels like it has stopped,” she told reporters outside the prison. “Other people go on with their lives, but you carry your loss into every tomorrow.”
Hart was sentenced to prison in 2003 following a sexual battery conviction.
Robertson was only 17 years old when he was sent to prison in 1980 for burglary and assault. Additional convictions for escape, battery, and weapons offenses extended his prison sentence.